A Field Experiment on Search Costs and the Formation of Scientific Collaborations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Boudreau, Kevin J.; Brady, Tom; Ganguli, Ina; Gaule, Patrick; Guinan, Eva; Hollenberg, Anthony; Lakhani, Karim R.
• 署名单位: Northeastern University; Harvard University; Harvard University Medical Affiliates; Massachusetts General Hospital; Harvard University; Harvard Medical School; University of Massachusetts System; University of Massachusetts Amherst; Czech Academy of Sciences; Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences; Charles University Prague; Czech Academy of Sciences; Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences; Harvard University; Harvard University Medical Affiliates; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard University; Harvard University Medical Affiliates; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00676
• 发表日期: 2017-10
• 页码: 565-576
• 关键词: information-technology; social networks; teams; PRODUCTIVITY; INNOVATION; KNOWLEDGE; patterns; IMPACT

摘要

We present the results of a field experiment conducted at Harvard Medical School to understand the extent to which search costs affect matching among scientific collaborators. We generated exogenous variation in search costs for pairs of potential collaborators by randomly assigning individuals to 90-minute structured information-sharing sessions as part of a grant funding opportunity. We estimate that the treatment increases the probability of grant co-application of a given pair of researchers by 75%. The findings suggest that matching between scientists is subject to considerable friction, even in the case of geographically proximate scientists working in the same institutional context.